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Any retired teachers out there??? Any from California???

24 years ago

Just wondering what words of wisdom you might have for me. I'm hoping to retire within the next 8 - 10 years, and have my STRS as income. Any suggestions on what investments I can start funding now?

Thanks!

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Comments (8)

qshopper
24 years ago
I'm a retired teacher but not from CA. My advice would be to put as much as allowed in a tax-sheltered annuity and a Roth IRA.
gadgets
24 years ago
Sooz:

I'm not retired, not a teacher, and not from CA, but just couldn't resist making my 'soapbox' statement. I do payroll at the local school. I preach every chance I get on starting tax-sheltered annuity plans as early in their careers as they possibly can. Usually counsel to begin within 5 to 10 yrs. When a new annuity company was trying to get our employees to join them, I was asked by the union to come to a meeting about it. Most of the teachers that showed up were within 5 yrs of retirement. So many made statements to the effect that they wished they'd known yrs ago, etc. First I let them know that it still wasn't too late, just not as ideal as an earlier start. But the one thing I stressed was to mentor their younger counterparts. Within the next two months, our employee participation in annuity plans increased by about 20% and half of that percentage were in the 25 to 30 year old age group.
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sooz
Original Author
23 years ago
Hi, qshopper and gadgets,

Guess I forgot to say that I DO fund my Roth IRA faithfully, for the full amount, annually.

Thankfully, someone wiser than I set me up with a TSA person years ago. Of course, after a while, that person's quote of "they don't put teachers in jail" made me wonder just what kinds of monkey business he was doing with my money, so I got a new TSA person.

I'm always telling new teachers to pay themselves first by getting a TSA. I'm still trying to get my sister to set one up, but oh, she is soooo busy! Well, now she's 48 and maybe she thinks she's gonna win the lottery, but really, that's not likely!

I was wondering about dollar cost averaging and investing in no-load funds--stuff I can do myself, and wondered if anyone else had some advice about things like that...I just learning and one of my cyberpals is talking me thru it...just wondered what everyone else may know...

Thanks!
qshopper
23 years ago
Can't help you there. I leave investing advice up to my financial planner. Knowing what to invest in and when is difficult at any time but timing the market in these wacky times is almost impossible.
gadgets
23 years ago
Sooz:

I'm with qshopper and would advise you to get professional help on the items you mentioned. I am also with you on trying to talk my own sister into putting at least a small portion into an annuity plan. She keeps saying she can't afford it. How much do you want to bet we'll hear the complaints later on? ;*) By the way, I've already started advising my teenage grandkids.
sooz
Original Author
23 years ago
It's not as if my sister can't afford it (she's a principal!)--she just doesn't see it as important...yet!! I get the feeling my lips are flapping and nothing is coming out when I speak with her about this! Grrrr! Maybe she's never gonna retire???

Sooz
Katalina
23 years ago
I just stopped my TSA because the return is only 2 percent and I can only access that after I'm 59 or 62 or something.
sooz
Original Author
23 years ago
Hi, Katalina,

Talk with your TSA rep, or get a new TSA person.

You can usually roll-over a low yield (2%) TSA into another TSA without any tax consequences.

Be sure you roll over into another TSA that allows you to withdraw the money earlier than 59 or 62 or something, unless there is some law that I'm forgetting that says you have to be 59 and a half or something. A reputable TSA person can help you.

Some TSAs will pay a bonus of an increased % interest earned if you roll over money into their particular TSA and keep your money in their TSA for, say, 5 years...depending on when you want to retire, this could be a good option.

Sooz

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